1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a plug and play interface for use in computers and computer networks. More specifically, the invention is directed to a generic interface for use with a number of different output servers/devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, the basic conventional printing system 10 uses a client/server architecture that includes a client 20, a server 40 and an output device 50. The client 20 conveys print and management requests to the server 40 and receives responses from the server 40 that arise from the submitted requests.
The server 40 receives these requests from the client 20, performs the required actions for each request, and returns responses to the client 20. One such request from a client is a print request, i.e., a request to print one or more copies of one or more documents, with the printed pages output using one or more features. The features can include simplex or duplex printing, stapling or binding, etc. Thus, a print request represents a collection of one or more documents to be printed as well as instructions for printing. The server 40 organizes the documents and instructions indicated in the print request submitted by the client into a print job. The server then sends the print job and any associated job control commands to the output device 50.
The output device 50 is a physical device or hardware that is capable of rendering images or documents and producing hard copy output of the print jobs received from the server 40. The output device 50 can then return responses to the server 40 regarding its current state or the status of the received print jobs. The output device 50 is commonly a printer.
These conventional systems, however, are designed assuming only one type of output device will be used. Thus, if a different output device is to be used, the entire document processing system must be revised. Such revisions require a great investment of time and money to accomplish.
Furthermore, the conventional systems do not allow a new output device to be added without extensive revision of the system and thus, interruption of the system operation.